Plant-based Creamy Garlic Mushrooms

This Sunday the girls woke up and got their own breakfast (happens sometimes and it is a treat!). They tend to watch cartoons on Sunday mornings (however unlike when we were kids and that was our one chance to watch cartoons, they just scroll through Netflix/Amazon Prime/Disney+ to find something to watch on demand).

However later in the morning I was woken up by screaming and thundering footsteps coming up the stairs. "DADDY WAKE UP, IT'S SNOOOOOOOWING" shouted my seven year old before jumping on the bed and shaking me awake.

It had just started, so we started the process of wearing warm clothes, coats, boot, gloves and hats, I have to admit I was impressed how fast the kids managed this compared to yesterday (I took them to the park for a walk so my wife could have a bit of quiet time) when it took us a solid half an hour to leave the house.

After the mini-snowball fight my wife and I realised it was nearly 11am and we hadn't had breakfast! We decided to do "brunch" and I did a bit of an experiment. To be clear my wife is the expert in the kitchen (Don't get me wrong, I try to help. With a scientific background I can follow a recipe step-by-step. Without instructions I can manage just about pasta, beans on toast, a jacket potato or plain rice).

Given we were ravenous this was what was left by the time I took the picture.

I'm not a chef so this isn't really a "recipe" more an outline of what I did.

Some people took my upcoming book, To Ve or Not to Ve, to be a vegan recipe book (It isn't), so I thought I'd put this out there. Hopefully my fiddling around in the kitchen may inspire others to have a go.

Ingredients

• Olive oil (or some plant-based butter would work I guess)

• 2 cloves of garlic (For anyone who is new to the kitchen - be sure to know the difference between a clove and a bulb!)

• Mushrooms (obviously! I used about 200g, we had most of a 250g box of chestnut mushrooms in the fridge)

• A big handful of spinach

• Some dried herbs (I used oregano because it was the first thing I saw when I opened the cupboard)

• English mustard (gives it a bit of a kick, I guess I could have used some paprika or chilli powder)

• Vegan Mayo (I used Hellman's because that's what we had)

Method

I'm not too bad with a knife but still like to do all the chopping before putting anything on the hob but you could probably chop things as you go along.

1. Peel and crush/chops the garlic cloves - I like the method of placing the knife flat on top of the cloves and smashing them, feels satisfying.

2. Slice the mushrooms - as thick or thin as you like, thinner will cook faster and you're more likely to get them crispy if that's what you're after.

3. Heat up a "splash" of oil/melt a "bit" of butter on "medium-high" heat (I've always hated vague instructions, all hobs are different but I was about 3/4 of the way up. In terms of the oil I guess it was about 2 table spoons.

4. Add the chopped garlic, keep an eye on it as it burns quickly moving it around. It;s usually not more than one or two minutes before you notice the garlic has browned.

5. Add the mushrooms, it may seem like a lot but they will reduce in size as they cook, if your pan isn't quite big enough you could try filling it up, then adding more mushrooms as the space clears up.

6. I sprinkled the herbs on at this point and mixed them into the mushrooms until none of them looks "raw" anymore.

7. Throw a handful of spinach on top (or two if you like) you'd be shocked at how much the leaves wilt. Mix things up until the leaves have wilted.

8. At the point where the leaves are wilted and the mushrooms look much smaller (and there is a fair bit of moisture in the pan) I added a teaspoon of mustard (obviously more or less to taste).

9. Add two teaspoons of mayo (again more for a creamier dish or less for a less creamier dish)

10. Mix it all up until the sauce is one colour (like mixing two part epoxy)

Serve on toast, or as a side dish in a meal.

My wife really isn't a fan of mushrooms (I'm not a fan of aubergine and she loves them - but we got married anyway). Her feedback was that she'd have preferred the mushrooms fried a bit longer to make them crispier but otherwise she quite enjoyed them :-)

Hope you have fun trying this or something else in the kitchen!